Multiphoton response of retinal rod photoreceptors

Vasilios Alexiades, Harihar Khanal
Abstract:
Phototransduction is the process by which light is converted into an
electrical response in retinal photoreceptors.
Rod photoreceptors contain a stack of (about 1000) disc membranes
packed with photopigment rhodopsin molecules, which absorb the photons.
We present computational experiments which show the profound
effect on the response of the distances (how many discs apart)
photons happen to be absorbed at.
This photon-distribution effect alone can account for much of the
observed variability in response.